Excerpt from Readings in Modern European History, Vol. 1: A Collection of Extracts From the Sources Chosen With the Purpose of Illustrating Some of the Chief Phases of Development of Europe During the Last Two Hundred Years However carefully and judiciously a historical manual may be prepared, it is impossible in its brief, compact statements of the fundamental facts to give a lively sense of the reality of the events, conditions, and motives with which it deals. The student is only too likely to learn and repeat the words of the book as mere formulas which fail to stimulate real thought and interest. In order to meet this difficulty and give the text-book its proper background and atmosphere the student must be brought here and there within reach of the living springs of our knowledge and see the very words of those who, writing when the past was present, can carry us back to themselves and make their times our own. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.